1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to new and useful improvements for detachable wheel systems for coupling to a small boat for facilitating the launching and recovery of the boat in water and the transportation of the boat overland. The wheels may be adjusted to various positions suitable for land transportation and for water travel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art is replete with examples of detachable boat wheel systems which are manufactured for long distance transportation, but which are unsuitable for only intermittent use because of their complicated mechanical structure and their concommitant cost of manufacture. Sanborn in U.S. Pat. No. 2,664,577 discloses a wheel system having a frame support for transporting the boat along the highway. The frame includes means for swinging the wheel and its supporting strut out of the way when the boat is afloat. However, the Sanborn wheel system includes a mechanical support manufactured in a fixed manner which cannot be adjusted for transporting the boat in both the normal and inverted positions.
Fredelake, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,370,309, discloses a wheel system for being detachably coupled between each of a pair of rotating wheels and means for independently suspending the wheels to absorb road shock. The wheel system may be raised to a retracted position when the boat is afloat. Bemis, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,035,282, discloses a retractable wheel system for coupling to a small boat, with the wheels being retractable into the internal volume of the boat which is normally occupied by the pilot thereof. The retractable boat wheels disclosed by Hadley, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,697,096, are likewise inconvenient because a cradle bar interferes with an outboard motor depending adjacent thereto during launching and recovery. Other retractable wheel systems for coupling to small transportable boats are disclosed by Norrby in U.S. Pat. No. 3,295,864; Atwood in U.S. Pat. No. 3,134,111; Dearborn in U.S. Pat. No. 3,052,202; Norrby in U.S. Pat. No. 2,999,252; and Hadley in U.S. Pat. No. 3,697,096.
The primary object of the present invention is to provide a detachable wheel system to facilitate the water launching and recovering, as well as the transportation overland, of a small transportable boat. The wheel system must be very simple and easily manufactured at a cost which will allow the wheel system to be economically installed on small boats intended to be transported on the tops of cars, trucks or other land vehicles. The wheel system may be structured of light weight materials since its primary purpose is to facilitate short distance transportation, such as between a motor vehicle and a launching ramp or from the owner's home to a nearby body of water. The mechanical structure of the wheel system must be easy to install, capable of quick detachment, and adjustable using only readily available tools. The wheel system must be constructed of light weight materials to prevent the alteration of the buoyant balance of the boat.
The wheel system must be reversible so that the boat may be transported either in the normal open-side-up position or in a reversed position with the open-side down. The wheels must provide adequate ground clearance for the boat in either of these transporting positions. Furthermore, the wheel system must be adjustable to allow for minimum water and air resistance when the boat is traveling through water. The wheel system must be relatively impervious to water for allowing the wheels to be used for launching the boat, such as rolling down an inclined boat ramp. The wheel system is mounted forward of the transom section so that the weight of the boat forward of the wheel system may counterbalance the weight of the boat, and the motor attached thereto, aft of the wheel mounting position. It must be possible for the user to adjust the position of the wheel system from his normal boat operating position without detaching the wheel from the boat, so as to prevent the loss of the wheel during this adjustment.